Knee Buckles and Breaks

[thesensei]

Just curious who uses these. They are fairly common in Kenpo, and I know that just about every style uses knees to check attacks, but who actually uses them as weapons against the opponent's legs?

Salute,
JB

[Sam]

I'm slightly confused. I study kenpo, and although I am still a beginner, we only ever talk about breaking the knees in self defense situations. We do a lot of sparring and kicks below the waist are completely illegal. Did you mean opponents in real life or in sparring?

It's one of the main targets we are taught to strike in a self defense situation.

[thesensei]

I'm slightly confused. I study kenpo, and although I am still a beginner, we only ever talk about breaking the knees in self defense situations. We do a lot of sparring and kicks below the waist are completely illegal. Did you mean opponents in real life or in sparring?

It's one of the main targets we are taught to strike in a self defense situation.

I'm NOT talking about sparring! I'm talking about self-defense. The idea is to use the knees to buckle and break those of the opponent. This is accomplished primarily by hard stance changes (an oversimplification, I know). The principles are used in sparring, however, to block the opponents' legs, and cover your groin/centerline.

[jfarnsworth]

I seen a nasty leg buckle from the front and unfortunately for that guy he is now having knee surgery. Freak accident in class as everyone was moving slowly but a front leg buckle shouldn't be used but in street self defense. :asian:

[OULobo]

Knee strikes are extremely common in both the Thai, Indonesian and Filipino martial arts. It is truely a devistating short range attack.

[arnisador]

In JKD, which I also study, we like to get in and knee the thigh until it gives. I'm not sure if that qualifies as a "knee buckle" or not. The first time I saw a knee buckle demonstrated, it was a boxer showing me a "dirty boxing trick" that you could sometimes get past the referee!

[thesensei]

Not exactly a "buckle," but it certainly qualifies as a knee strike!

Today I spoke to a good friend of mine who's a black belt in Kukkikwon TKD. He uses knee buckles occasionally, but not with as much application as I've learned in my Kenpo studies. He said that he really doesn't use them at all as striking tools though.

[rmcrobertson]

Uh...a common saying, in my experience:

"This is kenpo. A day without a kick in the groin is like a day without sunshine."

For training purposes, I was taught not to go against the joint. But then there's the extension to Grip of Death--arguably the nastiest thing in American kenpo.

[mj-hi-yah]

Just curious who uses these. They are fairly common in Kenpo, and I know that just about every style uses knees to check attacks, but who actually uses them as weapons against the opponent's legs?

Using the stance changes it would be fairly easy to use your knees/other parts of your leg as weapons against your opponent's legs. We use our legs to attack the femoral artery in the inner thighs and also to attack the backs of the legs, thighs, calves, ankles or behind the knee joint.

[Brother John]

We use buckles quite a bit. I had one student who lacked control at the time buckle me right into a torn ACL in my left knee.

Your Brother
John

[ppko]

we use both there is nothing like hearing someones leg break sounds like wet wood.:EG:

[thesensei]

we use both there is nothing like hearing someones leg break sounds like wet wood.:EG:
Hehe...and you would know, how??

LOL

[ppko]

Hehe...and you would know, how??

LOLI used to be a center ring referee for a MMA group some of the places that we did shows at got pretty ruff (bars and such) we were trying to make our way to the exit and some guy and his friends decided to start some stuff one of them punched at me I took him into a armbar and went into my leg break from there needless to say his friends no longer wanted to fight.

[Sin]

Knee strikes in my art, are not to brake the knee, but to make it give out long enough to get leverage on the guy.

[Jerry]

Knee strikes are extremely common in both the Thai, Indonesian and Filipino martial arts. It is truely a devistating short range attack. As a practitioner of an Indonesian art, I've got to second this statement.